Ellen DeGeneres Responds to Group’s Criticism of JCPenney Deal

Noel Vasquez/Getty Images for Extra(LOS ANGELES) — Ellen DeGeneres is happy that California’s same-sex marriage ban was declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court on Tuesday, but she’s less than thrilled with a conservative group that is protesting her new partnership with JCPenney because she’s gay.

In an episode of her daytime talk show airing Wednesday, DeGeneres says the court’s decision on Proposition 8 is a, “step in the right direction.” She then brings up the group One Million Moms and its criticism of her JCPenney deal. She says, “I’d like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators.”

DeGeneres says of the group, which recently claimed that JCPenney will lose sales because it hired the openly-gay comedienne as its brand ambassador, “They wanted to get me fired, and I’m proud and happy to say that JCPenney stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson. Which is great news for me because I also need some new crew socks. I’m really going to clean up with this discount.”

Reading from a statement in which One Million Moms accused JCPenney of jumping on the “pro-gay bandwagon,” DeGeneres says, “Being gay or pro-gay isn’t a bandwagon. You don’t get a free ride anywhere. There’s no music. And occasionally we’ll sing ‘We Are Family,’ but that’s about it.”

DeGeneres then disputes the notion that JCPenney is losing customers because of the hire, pointing to supportive comments written by people on One Million Moms’ Facebook page.

She says, “I usually don’t talk about stuff like this on my show but I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me….Here are the values I stand for: I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need.”